In response to the decision of the Electoral College yesterday to uphold a decision of the Central Election Commission (KQZ) not to deregister the Party of National Unity, and the interpretation given of this verdict by the government and its allied media, President Ilir Meta has once again stressed that “the only institution deciding on the election date is the office of the President,” and that only the Constitutional Court can pass a verdict on a presidential decree.
According to President Meta, the decision yesterday, taken in a context where the Electoral College is incomplete with only one judge vetted, with one side consisting of the Central Election Commission dominated by the Socialist Party, and the other an ally of the Socialist Party without seats in Parliament, was an “intra-party” decision that has no effect on his decree.
President Meta reiterated his call to all parties, government and opposition, to reflect on the political situation and arrive at an agreement that will propose a new date for the elections in which all parties will participate.
The President warned that if the Socialist Party insists on holding “internal party elections” on June 30 would stifle the EU ambitions of Albania for years to come. “No foreign ambassador would ever tell you this,” he said,
but even if the elections that no longer legally exist were held the European future of Albania and opening of the negotiations would have an unknown future for a very long time. Such solutions do not fulfill any minimal standard of the Copenhagen criteria but Albania would be even convicted by the European Court of Human Rights. Let me be clear, I did not cancel the elections in any embassy, but in Albania.
